How to Store Christmas Villages

Christmas is over and with the end of the holidays comes the clean up and storage of all your Christmas decorations, including your Christmas village. Storing your Christmas village involves ensuring that it will look as good next Christmas as it did the year before. Because most Christmas village sets include small, breakable buildings and accessories, storing your village properly is vitally important. Instead of quickly tossing your Christmas village in an old storage box, take the time to store it properly so you can enjoy it year after year.

Things You'll Need

Plastic storage containers

Black marker

Bubble wrap

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Keep the boxes in which your Christmas village buildings originally came. While this may not be possible with older pieces, you can start a trend for better preservation by keeping the boxes to any new pieces you purchase in the future. For older village pieces that are missing their original boxes, look for other boxes that are good sizes for those particular pieces.

Wrap each piece in bubble wrap. While it might be tempting to put two pieces together, those pieces can bump against one another and cause scratching, discoloration and breakage.

Store your boxes containing the bubble-wrapped pieces in a plastic storage container with a snap-tight lid. Cardboard boxes don’t hold up well under weight, wetness or other unsavory conditions. Placing the boxes in a plastic storage container will keep them safe from bumps, liquids and scratches.

Store the plastic containers holding your Christmas village pieces in an area that is temperate. Storing your pieces in an area that becomes too hot may cause paint to melt and stick to its container or other pieces. If you store your container in an area that’s too cold, you may risk your pieces suffering cracks or chipped paint. Find an area that retains an even temperature throughout the year.

Label the plastic container in which you place your Christmas village using a black permanent marker. Write the contents on the top and sides of the box as well as a note that the contents are fragile in the event someone else has to move the box. This will help you avoid setting anything too heavy on top of your Christmas village set while it is in storage.